paddlesurf.net
Advanced Member
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2009
- Messages
- 56
Greetings,
I just picked up my camper, new (ordered in 2017 picked up two weeks ago - so I don't know if it's a 2017 or 2018) and immediately took it out for a break in camping/fly fishing session. It's got the two battery AGM option so 158aH with 79 usable aH (50% rule).
Here's some real numbers for you guys, from my experience.
I did three days of camping outside of Bishop, Ca., I turned my fridge (largest Isotherm offered) all the way up (actually partially froze water in large water bottle overnight), used as much lighting as I wanted, ran the furnace when ever I felt like it and charged my phone from the USB ports in the camper. I even ran both fantastic fans at full blast for a couple hours yesterday when it got hot on the Lower O.
After fishing, I'd set up for the night, I would run on pure battery from approximately 5:00 - 7:00pm until approx. 8:30am. Can't say for sure when I'd fire up to pure battery - but it would be about dusk on the East side of the Sierras.
Deepest discharge (via Victron BVM 712 battery monitor): 33aH. On two days I used 22aH.
Typically I'd wake up in the morning - fire up the furnace, drink some coffee and drive to a fishing spot. At the spot, I'd deploy a 160watt portable ZAMP folding panel that I had from my other camper. That panel has a PWM controller on it and some pretty darn skinny looking wires running from it to the SAE connector (that I had to cut and flip around in order to interact correctly with the SAE connector I attached to the house batteries).
I can't say for certain how long it would take, but I'd stop fishing around noon - according to my Victron, by noon I'd be at 100% state of charge and would be running at positive amps.
I was really happy with the performance of the portable!
I'm still going to install my two Renogy 100watt panels on the roof of the camper and will run them through a Victron MPPT controller 100/20 (fits better in the cabinet space of the Hawk flatbed) because I'd like to just be able to pull up and not have to deploy the panel (or leave it out while I'm away on the river).
I was kinda fixating on how I'd wire it all - series vs. parallel and how thick the wires are from the roof to the controller and how big my battery bank is - and I still like to know about that stuff - but I have to say, I kinda think I was over-analyzing the whole system.
Granted, the portable unit can be angled perfectly to the sun but I have to say, for having what I've read to be an arguably less efficient controller (PWM) and long runs of thin wire, that thing really performed for me.
I wired it directly to the battery bank using a spare SAE connector - when I want to deploy the portable I just open the door to the battery compartment, pull out the SAE connector and plug in - it's not the cleanest way to do it (battery door is open) but it works - if you have any suggestions to clean that up, I'm all ears.
I kinda like having the redundant solar systems too - just in case something goes down with the house system, the portable could cover it.
Sounds like I'm over-analyzing again.
First it was the anger management, now it's OCD.
I just picked up my camper, new (ordered in 2017 picked up two weeks ago - so I don't know if it's a 2017 or 2018) and immediately took it out for a break in camping/fly fishing session. It's got the two battery AGM option so 158aH with 79 usable aH (50% rule).
Here's some real numbers for you guys, from my experience.
I did three days of camping outside of Bishop, Ca., I turned my fridge (largest Isotherm offered) all the way up (actually partially froze water in large water bottle overnight), used as much lighting as I wanted, ran the furnace when ever I felt like it and charged my phone from the USB ports in the camper. I even ran both fantastic fans at full blast for a couple hours yesterday when it got hot on the Lower O.
After fishing, I'd set up for the night, I would run on pure battery from approximately 5:00 - 7:00pm until approx. 8:30am. Can't say for sure when I'd fire up to pure battery - but it would be about dusk on the East side of the Sierras.
Deepest discharge (via Victron BVM 712 battery monitor): 33aH. On two days I used 22aH.
Typically I'd wake up in the morning - fire up the furnace, drink some coffee and drive to a fishing spot. At the spot, I'd deploy a 160watt portable ZAMP folding panel that I had from my other camper. That panel has a PWM controller on it and some pretty darn skinny looking wires running from it to the SAE connector (that I had to cut and flip around in order to interact correctly with the SAE connector I attached to the house batteries).
I can't say for certain how long it would take, but I'd stop fishing around noon - according to my Victron, by noon I'd be at 100% state of charge and would be running at positive amps.
I was really happy with the performance of the portable!
I'm still going to install my two Renogy 100watt panels on the roof of the camper and will run them through a Victron MPPT controller 100/20 (fits better in the cabinet space of the Hawk flatbed) because I'd like to just be able to pull up and not have to deploy the panel (or leave it out while I'm away on the river).
I was kinda fixating on how I'd wire it all - series vs. parallel and how thick the wires are from the roof to the controller and how big my battery bank is - and I still like to know about that stuff - but I have to say, I kinda think I was over-analyzing the whole system.
Granted, the portable unit can be angled perfectly to the sun but I have to say, for having what I've read to be an arguably less efficient controller (PWM) and long runs of thin wire, that thing really performed for me.
I wired it directly to the battery bank using a spare SAE connector - when I want to deploy the portable I just open the door to the battery compartment, pull out the SAE connector and plug in - it's not the cleanest way to do it (battery door is open) but it works - if you have any suggestions to clean that up, I'm all ears.
I kinda like having the redundant solar systems too - just in case something goes down with the house system, the portable could cover it.
Sounds like I'm over-analyzing again.
First it was the anger management, now it's OCD.
